My Mental Penis

Yes, that's right, at approximately 8:07pm on July 3 I was told I had a "mental penis". Though I'm not quite sure what that was supposed to mean. It could be a number of different things, sex drive, manliness, controlling tactics, or anything else that you want to describe about the male brain. And, yes, it was probably meant negativly because otherwise other terms would have been used, such as, strong, adamant, persevering, courageous, etc. But penis? No, no I find it hard to believe that would be intended as a compliment to a woman, even though she probably should take it as one. So the question comes up: If a woman has a penis, why is that a bad thing when a penis seems to create strength and power on a man?

Funny how it works, any compliment a man receives regarding his penis is something to get excited about, no matter what it relates to (business, guns, sex, cars, etc.). My friend said something interesting over dinner last night that she had learned in her female sexuality class, that vagina was a sexist word. To be honest I'm not entirely sure I agree but the logic behind it seems to make sense. It was basically this: a man's penis is there for both pleasure and reproduction as while the actual vagina is just for reproduction and the clitoris is there for the pleasure. But the reaction to someone using the actual world "clitoris" is a negative, derogatory reaction while people react to the word penis with indifference at the worst. And when she said it, it made sense. Even me as a woman when someone says the "c-word" I kind of cringe a little, like "oh how inappropriate" but I don't feel the same way about either the word vagina or penis.

Bottom line, men get praised for doing things women get looked down for. If a woman chose not to marry and have children but put her life in her career its social suicide. Spinster, old maid, old hag, unmarried woman, prig, etc. But a man gains so much respect for it, he is distinguished, a hard worker, and one of those stallions no one could ever tame. Face it, even Justice O'Connor had kids. Think that if she had never gotten married or had children people would respect her the same way? Maybe, maybe not. I'm thinking the most common reaction would be "yeah look at that success, but how sad, shes all alone!" For some reason though for a woman to gain respect she needs children, a marriage AND a career while the man only needs the career. Soooo, basically a woman needs to do twice the work to prove themselves? And here I thought our society was past that. College, graduate, law and medical school statistics alone should show otherwise.

Times have been changing and this certainly isn't the case for a great number of people out there today. There are many men and women who are more in tune with a more progressive view of the sexes. At the end of the day though there are still expectations that are hard to get rid of. A woman should be tender, emotional, virginal and delicate while the man should be strong, assertive and protective. These sentiments aren't always out in the open. In fact, the majority of the time they're hidden in comments about a mental penis. Perhaps the comment made to me wasn't intended to be negative and in fact comments of the opposite nature have escaped on multiple occasions. But, at the end of the day, the image of a penis or a clitoris on a woman will have a negative, dirty sort of connotation, while a penis on a man will be a sign of strenth.

For what its worth, I'll take my mental penis and be proud of it. If it is a sign of strength on a man it surely must be a sign of power on a woman, for what woman could grow a penis if she did not have only the most praised qualities of a man?